Pink & Shabby Custom Dollhouse Day #2

The Little girl inside of me must really want out because this project is actually flowing totally according to my plans. Last night I went to bed very late (or early depending on what you call 1 am). I had my music pumping and I was going with the flow. Sometimes, when I am thinking too hard about other things (real life things), my creative juices goes into overload.

First, right before I went to bed last night, I started on this bed for the upstairs room. The rooms in this kit are very small so I wanted to utilize the space and give the impression that there is more space in here than it actually is.

I have always considered my style of artistry to be more on the side of an Impressionist. The definition of Impressionist is * a literary or artistic style that seeks to capture a feeling or experience rather than to achieve accurate depiction. Through my blogging of this cottage, I wish to share with you new inexpensive ways to achieve the look of some expensive things that we buy in miniature. You will be able to do this with card board scrap pieces of wood and dollhouse wallpaper or even scrapbook paper. My goal is to try and help YOU, learn how to achieve the look of realism by applying skills of an Impressionist.

I already knew that today, I would do a tutorial. After I started making this bed last night, I wish I had been more awake so that I would have thought to take out the camera to take pictures of How I created it. Here is a shot of the Bed I started on last night and at the end, you'll see what it ended up looking like when I completed it.

Today's tutorial will be on how to make a Cornice. You will need:

cardboard, scissors, tacky glue, wallpaper (or scrapbook paper), balsa wood and lace trim. First, you need to take your cardboard and cut it a little bit wider than the width of your window. I will not use measurements because, every window has different sizes. You can also cut your wallpaper pattern. It should look like this when cut:

Next, take your tacky glue and spread glue over the entire piece of cardboard. You can then glue the wallpaper to the cardboard. You can use a credit card to smooth the wallpaper down to be sure there are no bubbles. It should look like this:

Next, you will take your lace trim and glue it to the bottom edge of your wallpaper

It should look like this when that step is completed

Next, you can take your wood and cut it a little bit shorter than your Cornice piece like this:

Bend each end of your Cornice and glue the wood block in place to help keep the shape of the Cornice when glued in place. Turn your Cornice over because once the glue is dry, it is ready to be attached. It should look like this when completed:

You can even add an extra step by adding some lace curtains. I just used some lace found at Hobby Lobby or Micheal's. You would do this by gluing the lace to the backside of the Cornice before you attach it to the wall.

This is what the room looked like at the end of today:

Upstairs

Downstairs

I did my workout this morning. I totally believe that having a healthy body & mind helps me be the Best person I can be for myself & my family and I can share my best and most creative work with my clients.

Today my workout consisted of Shoulders & Arms & Ab RipperX (P90X) . I hurt all over but, it feels great because it's a "good" hurt. Thought Of The Day ~ "Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be" ~ Thomas à Kempis

Many times, we look at others successes or accomplishments and think we can never reach our individual goals because we view the other person as someone not human. Each of us are just plain human beings. Set you Goals and work towards achieving them! Keep them in front of you! So many of my friends are working out to get healthy this year. It's so fun to share Minis & healthy living with them. Feel free to join us too. You are not alone!

Thanks for stopping by to read my blog today!

Pink & Shabby Custom Dollhouse Day #1

Today,I realized that I have not blogged since November. One of my goals is to keep up with blogging at least weekly. Today, I'll not only blog to let you know "I'm sill here" but, I'll give you a little tutorial that I hope you will enjoy, use and share your "Eye Candy" with me when you use it for your own project.

As a child I had the typical pink bedroom that most girls my age had. When I grew up, I decided to keep my walls a neutral color in my bedroom because I LOVE to change the curtains & comforters to create a "New Look".

Being a Creative person, I get bored with the same surroundings. Lately, I have been craving that girlie room in shades of white and pink but, I know I don't want those colors in my real house. Once again I was able to create this special desire in a Miniature form .

The house I picked this time is from the 2009 Greenleaf "Contest house kit". I wanted to do something fast so that I could move on to my newest idea (A Castle Tower which I want to start on before this month's end). So this morning, I woke up at 3 am with the idea that I would do the "Girlie Get-A-Way" house first. I choose wallpapers from Itsy Bitsy Minis. I Love her patterns and I am so happy one of my Clients introduced me to there fabulous wallpaper designs.

I started building the basic kit and decided I wanted white wood floors and decided to share this "How to" with you.

First I painted the floor a peony pink. I did this because sometimes, you can see in between the cracks and the natural wood color would not look professional or clean peaking through the cracks. You can paint the floor what ever color you will use as your accent color in your room. Sometimes, I even use black on the base floor when I am creating a dark wood floor for a room.

Then, I took a bag of the Greenleaf Thin Siding Strips and cut them different lengths and glued them down to the floor. I cut them in a staggered way because that is how "Real Life" hardwood floor. You don't want the cut lines to align.

This is how it should look when completed.

Lightly sand the wood floor with sand paper. Wipe off the excess wood dust. Take out your Paint brush, white paint and about 1 ounce of water. Saturate your paint brush with your white paint and then, dip it in water. Brush the watered down paint evenly on the wood flooring.

You want the wood grain to peep through! This is what it should look like when dry:

Next, take a small stencil pattern and stencil a border around the perimeter of the floor.

It should look like this when this step is complete:

Next, you'll want to seal your floor with varnish. I used a "flat" finish. You can use a glossy or a flat varnish finish depending on the look you desire. This is what the room looked like when I finished today. Tomorrow, I'll start the outside of my "Girlie Cottage"!

Remember these are just the basics! You can change it or alter it to fit your own special plans for your dollhouses!

:)

Thank you For stopping by to read my Blog!

Thought Of The Day ~ "If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree." ~Jim Rohn

Beacon Hill Dollhouse by Tracy Topps

I created a You-Tube Video of the Beacon Hill to use in the auction that ran for this house. You can see more shots of this house by clicking the "play" button:

Hope you enjoy seeing the pictures and if interested, please bid!
:)

New Half Scale Priscilla Dollhouse

I have been building several of the Greenleaf halfscaled (1/24th scale, G-Scale or 1/2" scale) dollhouses and have been having so much fun with them!! This is the latest one that I finished. We named it "The Priscilla". This house is an edited Buttercup Cottage. It has stucco & exposed brick. This is my first time doing brick work in this scale! It even has a "herringbone" brick pattern on the walkway. This house has 2 vines.  One has red flowers and the other has purplish blue flowers on it. There is moss and a stone chimney stack. The inside is wallpapered. The color scheme is Green, cream and pink.


I hope to take better pictures tomorrow outside. Thank you so much for stopping by to view my blog!



It will be for sale this week in my CDHM shop two days prior to the ebay auction. I will post here on my blog and on my Facebook page when it is available. There will be several new creations of mine for sell this week and next week so stay tuned!!

Tracy Topps

Greenleaf New Halfscale Dollhouses

Greenleaf has done it again! They have released several New Half scale dollhouses to their family!! Check out their website At Greenleaf Dollhouses  to Purchase these houses at a Wonderful Affordable price!

They are now offering the following houses in Half inch scale

The Arthur which has four rooms when assembled

 

The Diana which has four Larger rooms when assembled

The Willow  which has 6 Spacious rooms

The Vanburen which has six large rooms & two hallways rooms when assembled

 

This is a Wonderful and exciting time because this is the Month of October which means Dollhouse Appreciation Month has Begun!! Why not start on a new kit in a new scale and let your imaginations flow!!

See more half inch scale dollhouses offered by Greenleaf by clicking here:

Greenleaf Dollhouses

Dollhouse Miniature Wall "Hang-Ups"

 Sometimes, I find it hard to figure out what to make for someone. Every now and again, I feel like creating something special for someone and I love to create something that shares my love of minis with them.

I have found a lot of joy in creating Wall "Hang-Ups" for my friends. I made this one for a friend just to let her know she was on my mind. It was so much fun because I knew she'd get a kick out of having the Vines and stucco with exposed brick showing. I made the door myself because she has gone through something special that opened up a new "door" in her life.

The funny thing is that she loves minis too and when she saw the door she "got it" right away that this was a symbol of the new start she'd be able to have.


Have you been working on any fun  & quick projects this month? Please share it with us and post the link in your comment so we can see it!!

I hope you all are having a Wonderful September!!

Miniature Castle Gift

Last weekend, a friend of mine got married. It's amazing how fast young girls blossom into beautiful young women right before my eyes! I wanted to do something a little different for her because she has always reminded me of a Princess. Even as an adult, her style reminds me of something Princess Diana would wear. Even the way she carries herself and the way she dresses reminds me of a princess. So, I decided to make her a little Castle Tower. Here is a picture I was able to take of it before it left my house.

You can click the picture below to see the rest of the pictures of it:



 Castle by Tracy Topps

Apple Tree Cottage Dollhouse

Every now and again, I'll look at a dollhouse kit and see many different things that it can become. Many of you know I love to edit the Greenleaf dollhouse kits because I love the challenge of making them look different. I have never built a Greenleaf kit exactly per the instructions. Back when I started building them though, I had no idea it was called "Kit Bashing" and that it was something people did when they wanted to change the look of the kit they had purchased. 

Well, once again, I took the ordinary kit called "The Primrose"

And I turned it into this which I call "The Apple Tree Cottage"

It was a fun build. I move the door, added height to the upstairs room and added a dormer window to give that room more light. You can see more pictures by clicking the picture below:

Apple Tree Cottage by Tracy Topps

New Halfscale Buttercup Dollhouse for sale

I know it has been a while since I posted. I have been busy getting things ready for the kids for school and working on some new houses. I have been looking at all of the beautiful "eye candy" kits that Greenleaf gave us a few months ago and finally started building a couple of them. I finished a half scale buttercup kit ( some call this scale 1/24th, G-scale, Garden scale or 1/2" scale) and I decided to do it up with the paperclay (Creative paperclay in the Black package).

I must say that I am in love with this scale all over again! These kits are like a cool breeze on a hot day. Putting them together is fun and the best part is if you are like me and lack space but don't want to give up the details, this is a perfect scale. The size of this house (including the base) is 10"H x 10"W x7 1/2"D.

All of the shingles, brick and stones and even the base were hand sculpted & hand painted by me. I used the same techniques I use in a full 1" scale house. This house is for sale right now in my CDHM store and I am offering free shipping to the USA (lower 48 states). You can see what I have available for sale by clicking here: www.cdhm.org/user/minisontheedge 

   

   

Beacon Hill Dollhouse By Tracy Topps

I thought I would share some "eye candy" with you all. Here are pictures of the Beacon Hill I completed this year. I will post more shots later on but for now, here she is:

I had to mix the paint for the siding to get the ideal color that I had seen in my minds eye. It's so "crazy hard"to go shopping for paint! It seems like there are so many shades of a certain color but never the one I want and I almost always end up mixing my own paint.

The base on this house is detachable which can be very cool if a person want to change the base according to the seasons of the year.

I am almost finished with a new primrose kit that has been done a little differently and those pictures are coming very soon! Hope you all are having a Great day and Thank you for stopping by today!